The devil is in the details How cybercriminals, leakers, State-sponsored hackers failed their opsec #NOHAT 2019 - Carola Frediani
Opsec and the human factor You can get the tech right and still fail the opsec. Why? ● undisciplined past ● no compartmentation of identities (and of different operations) ● undeletable data language (is a traitor) ● ● money flows (follow the money) ● rush to get results ● group dynamics (peer pressure and recognition)
Harold T. Martin III - Contractor Nsa, sentenced to 9 years for stealing secret documents - Ph.D in information security management - He used virtual machines, encryption and anonymization systems, probably Tails or a similar system -> “a sophisticated software tool which runs without being installed on a computer and provides anonymous internet access, leaving no digital footprint on the machine” (indictment) - “ He has a demonstrated ability to conceal his online communications and his access to the internet” . - He sent strange messages to Kaspersky via DM Twitter during the Shadow Brokers leaks - His Twitter handle @Hal_999999999 connected him to his real life
Harold T. Martin III A Google search on the Twitter handle and display name found someone using the same name on a personal ad seeking female sex partners. The anonymous ad included a real picture of Martin and identified him as a 6-foot-4-inch 50-year-old male living in Annapolis, Md. A different search led them to a LinkedIn profile for Hal Martin , described as a researcher in Annapolis Junction and "technical advisor and investigator on offensive cyber issues." (source: Politico)
Harold T. Martin III Twitter handle > dating site > his real photo, location, age > Linkedin profile > language clue (CAMBRIC) Also: ● Twitter account created with email associated to his real life ● On a social networking website, the user hal999999999 had a display picture matching the motor vehicle administration photo of Martin
Paige Thompson (Capital One) Some leaked data were openly stored on GitHub ● ● The GitHub page included Paige Thompson full name in the digital address and it was linked to other pages on GitLab linking to Thompson and her résumé (source: affidavit) ● Thompson posted about the hack in an open Slack channel, naming her VPN, that matched Capital One logs of the intruder and GItHub logs ● A Meetup group was linked to the Slack channel where the alias erratic posted breached data ● The Meetup page had a " Paige Thompson (erratic)" as organizer ● Thompson used the alias “erratic” on Twitter (where she talked of the hack, and had her real life photo)
Alexandre Cazes ● 26 years old Canadian programmer, living in Thailand, and alleged kingpin behind AlphaBay Market ● arrested on July 5th, 2017 in Bangkok; he committed suicide after few days in prison ● in 2015 the Alphabay administrator, known as alpha02 (allegedly Cazes) said to DeepDotWeb: “I am absolutely certain that my opsec is secure, and I live in an offshore country where I am safe.” ● an email address in the AlphaBay forum welcome message was the main lead ● email address > real name > Linkedin > PayPal
Alexandre Cazes Around December 2014 AlphaBay's operators decided to add a forum to the martketplace. Users who registered on AlphaBay's forum got a greeting message from the site's admin. In December 2016, FBI learned that for a short period in 2014 these greeting emails included the AlphaBay admin's personal email address in the message header. That email address was: "pimp_alex_91@hotmail.com" Image credits: Christy Quinn
Alexandre Cazes Cazes' email was also included in the ● header of the AlphaBay forum pwd recovery process ( forfeiture complaint) ● The FBI linked it to his identity. It was also associated to a LinkedIn account for Alexandre Cazes, born in 1991 In his Linkedin profile he was from ● Montreal and run a tech company, EBX technologies ● A PayPal account run by Cazes listed his Hotmail account ● He used a pseudonym to run AlphaBay previously used on carding forums. And that was linked to his email and name in a 2008 post on a tech forum
Alexandre Cazes Police caused AlphaBay servers to shutdown, forcing Cazes to access AlphaBay forum/datacenter and try to reboot the servers. (“Law enforcement-caused outage”) Then they tricked Cazes into leaving his laptop by simulating a car accident outside his Thai home. Undercover cops crashed a car through his front gate. Cazes had the passwords for the servers stored in unencrypted text files, and an Excel with all his properties. ( Thanks to @Patrick_Shortis for some help on this case)
Ross Ulbricht (Silk Road) ALTOID HANDLE -> SILK ROAD I ALTOID HANDLE -> ULBRICHT EMAIL (Images via IPVN.net)
Ross Ulbricht On October 2013, FBI agents decided to arrest Thettttt Ross Ulbricht because there was a chance to get the laptop unencrypted. In the public library he was working in, a couple (two FBI agents) simulated a fight behind him. And when he turned away the FBI snatched his laptop, a Samsung 700z encrypted with TrueCrypt. He was logged into Silk Road. They found: PGP private keys, the .php files that built Silk Road, spreadsheets, chat logs, a journal. Source: The Grugq
OxyMonster Gal Vallerius aka OxyMonster was a vendor on underground marketplace Dream Market . He was arrested in August 2017 after flying to the US to attend a beard competition. Border guards searched his (unencrypted?) laptop and found his credentials for Dream Market, a PGP private key used by a Dream Market vendor, $500,000 US in bitcoin and a copy of Tor browser. Why was he a suspect?
OxyMonster ● OxyMonster had a Bitcoin tip jar for the help he gave in the forum. ● From this address many outgoing transactions went to a Localbitcoins.com account registered to Gal Vallerius. ● The agents searched his Twitter/ Instagram accounts and analysed his writing style comparing it with more than 1,000 comments left by OxyMonster on Dream Market. ● Cheers, double exclamation and quotation marks, French posts were a common pattern. ● Enough to mark him and get a warrant .
OxyMonster Investigation: chain analysis > social media OSINT > writing analysis > device search at the border Mistakes: no tumblers > no compartmentation > no avoiding US > no encryption
Hacktivism Stick to yourselves. If you are in a crew - keep your opsec up 24/7. Friends will try to take you down if they have to. (Sabu aka Hector Xavier Monsegur) Jeremy Hammond identified via a triangulation of real life insights revealed through his 3 nicknames (Anarchaos, yohoho, POW) ● Groups are often an enemy of opsec Social dynamics, group think, the need of ● peer recognition, the exchange of tools weaken opsec ● Hacktivists are easy to infiltrate (more than cybercriminal groups; much more than State-sponsored groups)
Guccifer 2.0 and the GRU State-sponsored hackers (Russian GRU) So allegedly responsible for the DNC leaks: Language (Guccifer 2.0) ● ● Identifying metadata (PDF documents) Real IP address (forgot to activate VPN) ● ● Account and IP reuse (email, server) Malware reuse (X-Agent, X-Tunnel -> ● APT28) Money flows ( bitcoin) ● Source: Motherboard
Guccifer 2.0 and the GRU - spear phishing domains - DCLeaks.com site same pool of bitcoin - X-Tunnel malware domain (linuxkrnl.net) Guccifer’s VPN funds from same DCLeaks bitcoin address Bitly link > Bitly account (not private) > many Bitly URLs (phishing campaign targeting the Democrats)
Park Jin Hyok (Lazarus Group) Kim Hyon Woo persona accounts (Lazarus attacks): tty198410@gmail.com hyon_u@hotmail.com hyonwoo01@gmail.com tty198410@gmail.com hyonwu@gmail.com ttykim1018@gmail.com @hyon_u surigaemind@hotmail.it Chosun Expo accounts (Park Jin Hyok): hyonwu@gmail.com ttykim1018@gmail.com pkj0615710@hotmail.com surigaemind@hotmail.it pkj0615710@hotmail.com mrkimjin123@gmail.com mrkimjin123@gmail.com tty198410@gmail.com
Looking forward ● Establishing cyber criminal identity (WHO) Establishing the outcomes of ● criminal conduct (WHAT) “Successful cyber criminals are those who avoid both detection of their crimes and identification ”
Some takeaways (from an opsec perspective) ● If you have good crypto but you fail at ● When you start, that’s probably when you OPSEC and TRADECRAFT then you lose - are going to mess up. (Krypt3ia) However, crypto helps. ● If you are going to build a big campaign attacking many targets maintaining a good ● Don’t reveal operational data opsec is hard, and expensive. ● Don’t contaminate. ● The solitary highly-skilled one-off hacker Contact between personas (covers) might well be the toughest to identify contaminates both (the grugq) (especially if she/he doesn’t move much money). ● No logs, no crime ( the grugq). However, people love logging. ● Opsec is rooted in psychology, mental well-being, autonomy, patience.
Thank you! Carola Frediani Twitter: @carolafrediani Newsletter: https://guerredirete.substack.com/
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